Line #9 YMMV/NUMB3RS


1	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
2	** ''Hallelujah'' played by Music/LeonardCohen at the end of ''Provenance'' when Alan, Larry, and Charlie discuss how even though a Holocaust survivor has lost her family, she regained something when she was given back her family's painting.
3	%%* BaseBreakingCharacter:
4	%%** Amita seems to be this, mainly for shipping reasons.
5	* CompleteMonster:
6	** [[Recap/Numb3rsS01E01 "Pilot"]]: [[SerialRapist Roland Haldane]] is known for [[ColdBloodedTorture branding his victims]]--of which he has around 13--and then raping them. His latest rape escalated into a murder, and he later kills another of his previous victims. He is found by the FBI, who rescues his latest victim, who had a bag over head and was close to suffocating to death.
7	** "[[Recap/Numb3rsS03E12 Nine Wives]]": [[DarkMessiah Abner Stone]], aka The Prophet, is the head of the [[{{Cult}} Apostolic Saints]], a {{polygamy}} cult. The Saints are infamous for "[[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil marrying]]" [[{{Ephebophile}} teenagers]] to grown men. During the final confrontation, Stone surrenders, but not before causing the building his followers are in to explode, making "martyrs" of at least a dozen or so.
8	** "[[Recap/Numb3rsS04E12 Power]]": [[DirtyCop Blaine Cleary]] pulls women over and then, usually after offering them [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink water laced]] with the DateRape drug Rohypnol, [[SerialRapist rapes them]]. He has done this to at least 7 women, and is about to have another victim when the FBI finds him and chases him. When finally arrested after said chase, his only reaction is "It's just sex, guys. Not that big a deal."
9	** "[[Recap/Numb3rsS05E21 Disturbed]]": [[SerialKiller Robert Posdner]] is a "stealth predator" who changes victims, methods, and even locations to avoid leaving a clear pattern, while also killing anyone [[LeaveNoWitnesses who might have seen him]]. Posdner's murders started approximately 20 years before the episode, in high school, when he stalked and killed a fellow student who rejected him, before threatening the girl's then-boyfriend. All in all, Posdner is responsible for at least 4 onscreen murders, attempts to murder a couple, can be tied to a few more, and has a TrophyRoom linking him to potentially many, many more. As the icing on the sociopathic cake, when he is finally arrested, his current wife comes out wanting to know what's going on, and he tells the FBI like a kid revealing a secret, "The poor thing. She has no idea! It'll be a total shock!"
10	* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Charlie is a highly sensitive individual who responds to trauma by going into a HeroicBSOD, has some very quirky mannerisms (such as his Charlie Vision), and is clearly a savant whose character is at least partially inspired by Film/RainMan. This has convinced much of the fandom that he is on the autism spectrum.
11	%%* DieForOurShip: Amita.
12	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Oswald Kittner ([[Series/{{Undeclared}} Jay]] [[WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon Baruchel]]), a fantasy baseball player from "Hardball," was originally going to be another oneshot before fan reaction caused the creators to call him back for "Democracy."
13	* FanficFuel:
14	** Don and Charlie's childhood, in particular with them dealing with Charlie's genius.
15	** Don's time in fugitive recovery.
16	** Characters' lives after the show.
17	** Colby's past in the military.
18	*** Also related with his relationship with Dwayne Carter and how the aftermath of the ''Janus List'' affected his relationships with David and the rest of the team.
19	** Charlie obtaining an NSA clearance.
20	** There is quite a few fanfics that deal with Don and Charlie's mother, Margaret, and what she was like as a parent before she died.
21	* FandomSpecificPlot:
22	** Many fics depict Charlie as a DistressedDude and Don coming to his rescue and/or being [[BigBrotherInstinct protective]] of his little brother.
23	* {{Fanon}}:
24	** Though it was never said on the show, there quite a few fics that show that Alan called Margaret "Maggie" when she was alive.
25	* FridgeHorror: The police InternalAffairs detective in "[[Recap/Numb3rsS04E12 Power]]" has "covered over a thousand rape cases". Throughout the episode she seems more determined to keep LAPD safe than to find the perpetrator, undermining the survivors at every turn. How many rapists are still free, and still on the job, because of her?
26	* HarsherInHindsight: In "One Hour", Don and his therapist talk about David having had "split loyalties" as he was assigned to Don's team by the SAC in essence to monitor them. Come the season finale, Don is going to learn a ''lot'' more about split loyalties.
27	** In "Vector", Dr. Weaver is concerned to the point of obsession with a hypothetical scenario where a flu-like virus emerges and becomes a deadly epidemic because adequate vaccines and treatments aren't available. Other than the specifics of the virus in question -- Weaver was convinced the threat would come from a reemergence of the Spanish Flu virus from 1918 -- it's not hard to see the parallels between the scenario he was imagining and the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.
28	* HoYay: In the episode ''Friendly Fire'', Colby, David, and Nikki make a bet on who would show up with the best-looking date; Colby and David win by declaring that ''they're each other's dates'' (Nikki lost when her date walked out on her after learning that she was the cop who arrested his friend for public intoxication when he was actually suffering from food poisoning).
29	** At the end of the season, David [[spoiler: is leaving for DC and everyone else refers to it as Colby and David's "breakup".]]
30	** When they're forced to spend time apart, Colby seems to go into withdrawal.
31	** Colby's not even the worst offender. It's ''David'' who drives Nikki crazy in "12:01 AM" by mentioning Colby every five minutes.
32	** Also the whole arc following TheReveal that [[spoiler:Colby was TheMole.]] David takes it the hardest by far -- not because of the implications or what he went through [[spoiler:when he thought Colby was guilty]], but because he's mad on principle that Colby lied to him.
33	* IncestYayShipping: Don/Charlie or "Eppescest" is a notable ship in the fandom, especially in the earlier seasons when there was a greater emphasis on the two reconnecting as adults.
34	* IronWoobie: Josephine Kirtland, the victim in the Season 3 episode "Nine Wives". She grew up in a polygamist cult. She was forced to marry its leader, Prophet Stone, who subsequently raped her. Instead of giving up, she escapes from a desert hideout and treks through the wilderness at night. Later, she faces two awful truths: [[spoiler:her mother betrayed her to Stone, and she is the product of ParentalIncest (she and her mother have the same father)]]. Despite all of this, she's a mostly stable individual by the end of the episode.
35	* JerkassWoobie: Some of the killers do have sympathetic motives that do make some audience members feel sorry for them. For example, in "Killer Chat", [[spoiler: the KnightTemplar murderer turns out to be the wife of a pedophile who found out that he had molested their daughter despite his promises to not do anything to their children]].
36	* MagnificentBastard: "[[Recap/Numb3rsS05E12 Jacked]]" & "[[Recap/Numb3rsS06E09 Con Job]]": [[GentlemanThief John Buckley]] is a charismatic ConMan, thief and kidnapper. Buckley highjacks a tourist bus for a ransom and sends the FBI on a wild goose chase after the wrong bus to mask his activity. Buckley is able to counter nearly every move the FBI makes and manipulates them into doing what he says using a [[TheMole Mole]]. Buckley is also the master of the bluff, as while he abhors using actual violence against people, he will use a threat against his victims to get them to do what he says, including letting him escape. After his arrest, Buckley tricks his cellmate Maddox into copying his bus hostage plan when Maddox is released. This causes the FBI to come to Buckley for help in order to stop Maddox, which Buckley uses instead to help him both pull off the heist and escape. Eventually betraying his cohorts, Buckley is [[TheBadGuyWins able to get away with the money]] and even ends the episode with a video call to his [[FriendlyEnemy friendly enemies]] Dom and Charlie, that he's looking forward to another round.
37	* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: The show often did this.
38	** One episode featured two well-known actors. Of course, they had ''both'' done it.
39	** Exception: In "Graphic", an episode with Creator/WilWheaton and Creator/ChristopherLloyd. Neither did it.
40	** Another exception is Series/BillNyeTheScienceGuy getting called in as a consultant, and the criminal was someone completely unrelated.
41	* RetroactiveRecognition:
42	** Creator/JoshGad appeared in two episodes of season five before becoming well known for ''Theatre/TheBookOfMormon'' and ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013''.
43	** Creator/JonHamm in a season three episode before becoming well known for ''Series/MadMen''.
44	** Creator/JenniferSiebelNewsom, future first lady of California, appears in "Bettor or Worse".
45	* RonTheDeathEater: Done fairly often to Amita, usually by authors of Charlie Eppes slashfic to take her out of "contention" so Charlie can be free to end up with whoever the writer happens to have in mind. Generally, this end up taking the form of run-of-the-mill bad behavior (i.e. calling Charlie homophobic names) more than outright evil.
46	%%* TheScrappy: Nikki. She has a four-year degree from the streets of Compton, yo.
47	* SeasonalRot: In general, the mathematics underwriting the solutions is sound, and explained in such a way as to remain at least a little accessible to viewers. During seasons 1 to 2, the writers were fairly good at keeping each episode theme-focused to illustrate a few related concepts or particular branch of mathematics, allowing them to give the math at least some decent coverage in depth. Unfortunately, as episode number climbed (especially in Season 4), the math degenerated into magical solution generators. The creators gave the series a minor retool around the midpoint of Season 5, now the math has been mostly relegated to a side show, and more personal drama are being pushed in front; most of the episodes in season 6 feature almost no math at all.
48	* UnconventionalLearningExperience: The show discusses math in every episode.
49	* UnintentionalUncannyValley: "Floyd", the [[TheMenInBlack agent from "Department 44"]] in the episode "Dreamland". He looked perfectly human, but his ''effect'' was rather like an android with a better-than-average speech program. The bouts of "invisible cell phone" had some viewers looking for the spinning blue ring, and the tendency toward StealthHiBye (Amita called it "Materializing") just added to the weird factor. One would think that an agent with such a secretive group would want to blend more.
50	* TheWoobie: Charlie. There's a reason there is an ''entire subcommunity'' of fanfiction based solely around [[DistressedDude him and his Woobiness.]]

Context YMMV / NUMB3RS